Minnesota Ranks Third in Nation in Annual Federal Health Care Quality Report

Published Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Minnesota ranks third in the nation for overall quality of health care, based on more than 100 measures reflecting health and health care across the continuum of care, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) annual report on state-by-state health care quality data released on July 22, 2010. Since 2006, Minnesota has consistently ranked among the top three states. The state should be proud of the results we have achieved and of the collaborative spirit in Minnesota’s health care community.

These data underscore the diligent work of health care providers and many quality improvement advocates and supporters in Minnesota and across the country, including Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) such as Stratis Health.
AHRQ 2009 State Snapshots show that no state, including Minnesota, does well or poorly on all quality measures. While Minnesota ranks well compared with other states, the overall health care score of 64.02% indicates opportunity for ongoing improvement. We encourage providers to continue to leverage Stratis Health and other quality improvement resources to further health care quality in the state.

Collectively Minnesota hospitals, physician offices (ambulatory care), and nursing homes rank in the top 25% of their settings nationwide. Our settings of care have worked hard to improve health care quality. Physician offices, nursing homes, and home health agencies all show increases in care quality performance over Minnesota’s baseline data.

• Minnesota hospitals are ranked strong in care quality performance. In aggregate, they improved in 13 of the 14 quality measures.* Compared with the United States, Minnesota ranks strong‘ when looking at the 12 state hospital care measures for Medicare—related to mortality, safety, and birth/obstetrics.
• The physician office setting in Minnesota ranks the highest in the nation, ranking strong and improving on 15 of the 36 measures.*
• Minnesota nursing home performance remained strong, ranking fourth in the nation and improving on 12 of the 19 quality indicators.*

Minnesota State Snapshot Scores Since Inception

Scoring methodology available on the AHRQ Web site.

While scores for home health agencies in Minnesota rank among the lowest in the nation, they improved on six of the 10 quality indicators.* Over the past year, many organizations have worked together to understand and improve patient outcome measures to ensure quality care. Read more on page 3 of Quality Update.

Minnesota rates strong in preventive care and acute care, and average in chronic care. Compared with all states, Minnesota’s performance for clinical preventive services—a subset of the preventive care quality measures—such as immunizations and tests to screen for the presence of diseases—is very strong, improving from strong. Most preventive services are provided in primary care ambulatory clinical settings.

Compared with other states, Minnesota’s performance is rated weak for disparities in low-income communities compared to high-income communities. The state is performing worse than the U.S. average for 11 of the 24 measures.* Comparison data on racial disparities was not available for Minnesota. The report contains additional measures for diabetes, asthma, Healthy People 2010, and hospital measures by payer.

Stratis Health works to promote transparency and reporting of quality data to the public. Advances in data transparency, including increased adoption of health information technology and mandatory participation in state and federal data collection initiatives, have led to a growing number of public information resources, evidenced by the increased number of measures appearing in 2009 AHRQ State Snapshots. Stratis Health has supported these efforts through collaborations with Minnesota providers, facilities, and community partners, as well as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

* Improvement is based on changes from baseline to current year. Totals include only the number of measures that AHRQ included as comparison data for Minnesota. Additional quality measures may be reported for other states.

More Information

The 2009 State Snapshots provide summary information about health care quality, encompassing and going beyond the work of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid and the QIOs. Minnesota’s performance is summarized in a series of dials, similar to a speedometer on a car, which indicates our standing in relation to all other states. By Congressional mandate starting in 2006, AHRQ reports annually on the overall health of the nation in its National Healthcare Quality Report with a companion report specific to health care disparities, the National Healthcare Disparities Report. See reports >